


Dear Journal, Hi It's Me Ron

by JoyHeart



Category: Dungeons and Daddies (Podcast)
Genre: Comforting, M/M, a positive moment, big hugs all around, but by gum they make it work, definitely platonic on rons side, depiction of a light emotional overload and break down, new years fic exchange, reference to memory warping, ron being a good boy, ron really needs a hug yall, sort of romantic on mark's side
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:02:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28505667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoyHeart/pseuds/JoyHeart
Summary: Ron Stampler has a lot of emotions over having to face down his father to recover his anchor, and slips away to have just a little breakdown over it. Little did he know, Ron's never alone as long as Mark Likely is in the world keeping an eye on things.
Relationships: ron stampler/mark likely
Comments: 5
Kudos: 14
Collections: Secret Sons Fanfic Exchange





	Dear Journal, Hi It's Me Ron

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prompt filling for Gryph from the Bill E. Wug's Bar discord New Years fic exchange! The prompt was for wholesome Ron/Dennis, platonic or romantic. Hope this fills your wishes, Gryph!

**Dear Journal, Hi It’s Me Ron**

“Hey, Ron?”

“Oh, hi Glenn. What’s uh, what’s the haps? As the kids say.”

It was late at night, and Henry and Darryl were snoring away in their bed in the inn on the way to Oakvale while Ron and Glenn lay side by in their own. Ron and Glenn weren’t the most chatty of bed mates most days, but something had been bothering Glenn and he figured this was as good a time as any to ask about it.

“Yeah, uh, it’s nothing that important but like, you remember Dennis, right?”

“Oh. Him.” Glenn watched Ron’s mouth turn downward in the dim moonlight leaking in through the cracked window, and marvelled at how the smaller man’s hands curled into fists. Glenn knew Ron didn’t like Dennis, but he seemed absolutely livid just thinking about him and that was kind of fascinating. “Yeah, I remember _Dennis_. Or should I say… uh… whatever his real name was.”

“Mark Likely.”

“Yeah. He was a dick. And NOT as good a rogue as me. And definitely not a DILF.”

“Well, he _was_ kind of a DILF.” There was a thud as Ron hit his fist off the mattress and Glenn snorted. “Okay, okay, not a DILF. But like, what I’m wondering is, how did you know that Dennis wasn’t real? Everyone else accepted him and his weird mind-warping powers without question. Even me and Erin, we all did! Why didn’t you?”

That gave Ron pause as he turned to look at Glenn, his eyes wide and glassy. It would’ve been deeply unsettling if Glenn hadn’t been sharing beds with Ron for the last few months.

Ron’s eyes abruptly narrowed. “I’m married to _Samantha._ ”

“Yeah?”

“ _Not_ Dennis.”

Glenn stared at Ron as the smaller man looked back up at the ceiling as though he had answered the question. Which, well, he had but Glenn wasn’t sure if he could accept what he was just told.

“Ron, are you saying Mark tried to make you think you were _married to him?_ ”

Ron bit his lip for a second. “Well, I guess so? I just remember we were sitting in that cave, and then Dennis was there, and my first thought was ‘ _oh, there’s Dennis, my husband and father of Terry Junior._ ’ But then I immediately remembered that no, I’m married to my very hot wife Samantha. Then I saw Terry Junior, and I saw Samantha in him, and so then I knew for sure that I was right, so that meant this Dennis guy was some stranger who appeared out of nowhere!”

“Huh, that’s weird. But wait, so did that mean Terry Junior thought Dennis was his dad, too?”

“Huh.” Ron’s brow furrowed as he mulled that over. “I never thought about that. All I know is, I looked at Dennis, and he leaned over to kiss me, and I backed off cause I didn’t know who he was, and then he got a weird look on his face and things felt really weird…”

“Woah woah woah, he tried to _kiss_ you? When?”

“When he first showed up! But yeah, when he realised I knew he was a phoney I got a weird feeling like my memories were going fuzzy, so I just held onto the one thing I knew for sure. Dennis wasn’t there before. And he was NOT my husband. And… and then I tried to get you all to believe me but you didn’t…”

“Huh. You know that kind of makes sense? Like, the fact that Dennis started by saying his wife was dead, and then later said she was in the PTA, and the fact he had to make up some weird stuff about why his son wasn’t with the rest of the sons. It all felt kind of improvised at the last minute, like he had to make some major changes to his story…”

“Anyways, I’m bored of talking about this. Can I ask you something instead?”

“Uh, sure.”

“How did you get some of your hair to be a different colour?”

“… are you asking me what hair dye is?”

“Hair dee-eye?” Ron pronounced awkwardly. Not for the first time, Glenn wondered how Ron Stampler lived in the real world.

*

Quite a long while after Ron’s pillow talk with Glenn, after Henry learned about his heritage, after Scam Likely was revived and altered forever, and after Glenn went to prison and discovered his mysterious half-brother Walter (the… Moral?), the gang of Dads plus Paeden and Terry Junior were on the road to recover and destroy Ron’s anchor. This time they were travelling by covered wagon, much like the pilgrims. Also much like the pilgrims, this journey put Ron in a journal-keeping mood.

“Dear Journal, not diary,” said Ron, “Hello, it’s me again, Ron Stampler, esquire. It has been many months since this journey began, first to find my stepson Terry Junior, and then to escape from this very dangerous world. Glenn and Walter have been spending a lot of time bonding since Glenn got out of prison, and he seems pretty happy to have a brother who cares about Nick so much. Henry and Darryl have been pretty busy bonding too, at least I assume that’s what they have been doing. Glenn calls it ‘making out like horny teenagers’, but I don’t know. I think it’s nice. Like we’re all a family. Though sometimes I feel a bit like a fifth wheel these days. Still, I think things are going well, overall.”

“Uh, dad? What are you doing? You said you had to write in your journal but you don’t have a pen or paper and you’re just staring out the back of the wagon and talking to yourself?”

“Oh right! Also diary, Terry Junior is with me right now. He says hi. More entries to come. Love, Ron Stampler.”

Ron looked at his step son with an absent smile. “Hi Terry. How’s it going, uh, sport? I’m doing alright myself. Definitely not freaking out about having to fight my dad or anything.”

Terry looked uncertain. “Are you sure? Because you’re sweating a _lot_.”

“Heh heh, oh don’t be silly, Terry. I’m f-f-f-fine…” Ron said as he frantically wiped his hands on his bare thighs. Not only did he have to face down Willy soon, but he had to do it without visible pants after the mishap with the illusionary pants belt. Things were not looking up for Ron.

“Ron, it’s gonna be okay. Okay, so Willy’s a weird guy, and he yells a lot, and he’s got a lot of creepy magic powers, and we haven’t really done that well against him in the past…” Terry trailed off and shivered. “Oh crap… this is going to be real bad isn’t it?”

Ron looked at Terry Junior with fear in his eyes as his stepson drew away to a corner of the wagon (Most of the group was fighting over the reins of the horses out front except for Paeden who was snoozing on top of the white wagon cover) and curled up against the wall to panic.

“Uh oh, if Terry’s freaking out this must be pretty bad, huh?” Ron said, eyes darting for the back of the wagon and the short wall that he could jump over to run away from his upcoming altercation. Perhaps he could live in the forest, and start a business renting trees to woodland creatures for acorns. That could be nice. He could see himself as squirrel’s landlord if given the opportunity. He definitely couldn’t see himself facing down his father and winning.

“Dear Journal, it’s me again. I know it hasn’t been that long, but I just want to say that things aren’t looking too good over here after all. There is a very real possibility that I will not be able to win this upcoming fight, and well, that’s been a lot to handle. Journal, I want to be the big strong dad that Terry deserves! But I’m just Ron. I try really hard but I’m starting to think maybe I should just bail and um, maybe my dad will get bored and destroy the anchor himself? Maybe?”

The wagon slowed to a stop and the shaking sent Ron careening into the wooden wall. He held on as Darryl announced a potty break and then perked up.

“Oh, uh, yes, I would like to use the little businessman’s room!” Ron said quickly, and then wasted no time scrambling over the side of the wagon onto the ground and running full tilt into the bush before anyone could try to stop him.

Not that he expected anyone to stop him. After all, why would anyone doubt that a man in only his underwear running toward the bushes wouldn’t be going to use the facilities? It was the perfect crime.

Ron bypassed the bushes and found luck was on his side as he discovered a pile of rocks with a lovely cave dug into the side of them.

“Oh good, and it looks like no one’s home, too. A perfect place to cr-y-y-y…” Ron’s voice dragged out on a whine as he ran into the dark interior of the cave and curled against the wall.

Ron Stampler was not a man to show his emotions most of the time (from his perspective anyway), but when he was overwhelmed, he knew the one thing he could do was get far away from everyone else before he broke down. That way no one could call him a baby and tell him he would never amount to anything and claim that they would give him a real reason to cry.

Burying his face in his bare knees, Ron heaved a sob and could only take comfort in the cold walls echoing his own distress back at him. Things were bad, really bad, even though no one would admit how bad they were. Ron knew. He didn’t want to see his dad again. He didn’t want to bring Terry Junior anyway NEAR Willy Stampler. Why did Terry have to be there, anyway? Willy was too strong, he was gonna… he could hurt someone, and how could Ron do anything to stop it? Ron was just an ungrateful brat, and his dad was so big and strong, and Ron was _nothing_.

A lean, muscular arm wrapped around Ron’s shoulders without warning and pulled him into a broad chest. Ron’s heart stammered. “G-Glenn? No, you don’t smell like weed. Henry? No, you don’t smell like poop. Not as squishy as Darryl…”

“It’s me, Ron.”

“DENNIS!” Ron screamed, scrambling out of the embrace and crab walking backwards from Mark Likely, who was in his Dennis disguise again and sitting against the wall with his hands held out in front of him as though placating a frightened animal.

“Hey man, it’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.”

“W-what are you doing here? Scam’s alive now, you don’t need to take your revenge!”

Mark grimaced. “Honestly, after what he turned into he might’ve been better off dead but… now that I’ve got the full story, I know how nice you were to him when he was Mr. Mustache, and it’s not like you _made_ him draw two cards from the Deck of Many Things. Plus I was never really mad at _you_ Ron.”

Ron frowned, wrapping his arms around himself and forgetting the tears still staining his cheeks. “Y-you weren’t? But you made everyone think you were a better rogue than me! And you made everyone think I was lying and being mean to you for no reason!”

“Yeah, okay, that’s fair,” Mark nodded, crawling a bit closer to Ron and only stopping when Ron started backing up again. “Look, that wasn’t what I wanted at first! I was going to make everyone believe we were married and you were the only person the DILF that was Dennis would ever find sexy! It was a great, well thought out idea that would’ve brought attention to all the great qualities of Ron Stampler and made all the other dads twist in jealousy and pain over the fact that I would never love them like I loved you, Ron.”

Ron sniffled. “That makes sense, but why wouldn’t you be mad at me? I thought we all killed Scam, d-didn’t we?”

“Well, Darryl was the one who make the riddle that bound him to your service, Henry was the one to ask him to owe you a scam, and Glenn was the one who remembered to call him. You didn’t really do anything, Ron. I watched everything very closely, just like I’ve been watching all of you guys ever since I revealed myself to you after our adventure with Walter!”

“Oh,” Ron didn’t know what to make of that. He didn’t know what to make of a lot of things. “So you know we’re going to fight Willy now, huh?”

“Yep, and I know you’re freaking out about it. Are you sure you don’t want a hug, big guy?” Mark sat cross legged and patted his lap. “Ah?”

Ron’s lower lip trembled and he looked around the empty cave for a minute before frantically nodding. “Yes, please.”

Mark’s lap was very firm and warm, and Ron curled up there and felt incredibly safe as Mark’s arms wrapped around him. The heartbeat against Ron’s ear sounded so loud and steady it was almost artificial, but no less comforting.

“This is nice,” Ron admitted, snuggling in further. “I still don’t think I can fight my dad, though.”

“Hey buddy, I know it sounds really tough. But I’ve heard you’ve fought vampires, and the Library who I know is really tough. And you’re always the guy out there, laterally thinking his way into an unconventional victory, right?”

“Well, I guess so…”

Mark bounced his knees lightly until a smile was coaxed onto Ron’s teary face. “Plus you got Terry Junior to believe I wasn’t real when no one else did! You and Terry have a great bond, one that Willy _wishes_ he had. I’ll tell you what, I’ll bet your Daddy Magic could be a lot stronger than his.”

“Heh, y-yeah,” Ron muttered, unconvinced. Mark stopped bouncing him and sighed, merely cradling him into his broad chest once more.

“You’re going to be just fine, champ. And you’re not alone, right? You’ve got those other dads, who are kind of assholes, but they seem to care about you! Even if it’s not as much as you deserve.”

“Erm…”

“And you have Terry Junior, who’s really starting to like you! And that… weird homunculus kid. You’ve got help! And hey,” Mark leaned in to Ron’s ear. “If you ever need a hug, you just need to ask, and you can have one from your old pal Dennis. Okay?”

“Okay.” Ron paused. “Actually, you know, you could also help us _fight_ maybe? Reality warping powers could be useful, probably. More useful than hugging, actually?”

Mark burst into hysterical giggles, flicking Ron’s nose playfully. “Aw, fuck no! I saw what happened when my brother tried to help you directly. Willy killed his ass, I’m not going in there.”

“Oh.”

“But I can do hugs! So if you need a big, warm, Dennis-brand hug, you’ll give me a call. Right, Ron?”

“Um… sure.” From somewhere outside the cave, Ron heard the telltale sound of Henry and Darryl shouting his name and sighed deeply. “Well, looks like I’ve got to hit the road, Jack.”

There was a moment of silence.

“Um, my real name is Mark.”

“Oh.”

There was more silence. Then Mark leaned in and kissed Ron on the forehead and vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving Ron’s ass to drop over the stone floor and prompting him to let out an ‘oof’. All this just in time for Henry’s head to poke into the mouth of the cave with a look of upmost relief.

“There you are! GUYS, HE’S OVER HERE! Ron, what’re you doing in this cave? Are you okay? Your eyes look a little red. Aw man, did you get hurt?”

“No! Nope, I’m fine!” Ron said as he scrambled to his feet, knocking the dust off the seat of his boxers and trying frantically to compose himself. “Just uh, a-allergies? Allergies are a thing, right?”

“They sure are, Ron! In fact, I have several allergies myself. Let me tell you, I love me a tree, but try to sandblast poplar around me and I break into SO many hives! But come on, we gotta get a move on to go fight your dad!”

Ron winced, rubbing his arm. “Sure, Henry. Um, just give me one more minute, okay?”

“Enjoying the cave huh? Yeah, I like caves, too. The rocks in here are really fascinating! I’ll give you a moment alone to appreciate them. See you back at the wagon, okay?”

“Okay.” As soon as Henry was gone, Ron turned his face to the depths of the cave and took a deep breath. “Dear Journal. Today, Dennis came back and hugged me. That was pretty weird, but it also was pretty okay. I might call him back for another hug, one day. Until then, I’m going back to the wagon to hug Terry Junior and tell him things will be okay, because it seems like that’s a pretty good thing to do. Uh, based on recent experience. I’ll let you know how it goes. Love, Ron.”

“Love you too, Ron!” called a voice echoing from the back of the cave.

“Journal?” Ron’s eyes widened.

“No, it’s me, Mark! Just hanging out, watching! Like always!”

“Oh, okay.”

“Did you want another quick hug before you go?”

“Uh, I need to think about it.”

“Okay, well take your ti-”

“Yes please.”


End file.
